<article>Japanese startup Pulit has secured investment while Fablic is being acquired by Rakuten.</article>

Japanese startup Pulit has secured investment while Fablic is being acquired by Rakuten.
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Pulit closes seed investment</h3>
Tokyo-based <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://pulit.jp/" target="_blank">Pulit</a>, a startup developing distribution technologies for digital image and video content, has secured 50 million yen (~$500,000) investment in its seed round led by South Korea-focused fund <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://bonangels.net/" target="_blank">BonAngels</a> as well as five angel investors.
According to a <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://thebridge.jp/en/2016/09/pulit-secures-seed-round-funding" target="_blank">report</a> from The Edge, these are Jun Narimatsu (ex-CFO of Cookpad, strategic adviser and an angel investor), Yusuke Sato (founder of FreakOut and Ignis), Yoshinari Matsuda (attorney), Hiroyuki Kato (ex-CTO of Atlantis and current CEO of web service developer Irodori) and Goushi Yamaguchi (formerly with Cookpad and Lancers).
Pulit hopes to restore the initiative of video content distribution to content holders or creators, which sees them uploading videos to be distributed onto a cloud, with a digital watermark embedded on the cover image and direct access link (URL) issued for each video.
The latest investment will fund further expansion of the team from the current four to six members. It plans to start business promotion from intellectual property management agencies of animation studios, given the demand for Japanese popular culture products internationally.
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">Fablic to be acquired by Rakuten</h3>
Tokyo-based <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://fablic.co.jp/company" target="_blank">Fablic</a>, the Japanese startup behind flea market app <a style="color: #000080;" href="https://fril.jp/">Fril</a>, is reportedly going to be acquired by Rakuten in a multi-million dollar deal expected to be in the region of tens of million US dollars. Rakuten will buy all shares in Fablic from holders including management, turning the startup into a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Nikkei Asian Review <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Deals/Rakuten-enlarging-footprint-in-online-flea-markets" target="_blank">report</a>ed that Rakuten will merge it with its existing flea market app Rakuma. Rakuten expects to grow its total trading volume up to an estimated $30 million. Fablic was incepted in April 2012.
Fablic&#8217;s Fril app has strong traction amongst the demographic of teenage girls and women in their 20s, with the marketplace enabling individuals to sell handmade goods, with fashion and beauty items as accessories constituting a large part of the product lineup. Rakuma, Rakuten&#8217;s own app, has no such traction in the female and younger demographics.
Fablic clams to have introduced the concept of ‘flea market app’ to Japan and reports that their trading volume reached 500 million yen in July 2014. Their last investment was a <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://thebridge.jp/en/2014/09/fril-funding" target="_blank">$10 million round in October 2014</a> from Cookpad, Colopl and <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://dealstreetasia.com/tag/jafco" target="_blank">Jafco</a>.
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Pulit have closed investments, while Tokyo-based Fablic is being acquired by Rakuten. 

Japan Digest: Pulit secures investment; Rakuten may acquire Fablic

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Japan Digest: Pulit secures investment; Rakuten may acquire Fablic

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